The coal miners of Pike River, NZ and their families are in my thoughts

Please go here to leave a message.

Mine says:

Thinking and praying for those below the ground and those above. 

Peace be to you and may your men come home to where they belong

Film night to raise funds for TEAR’s Pakistan Flood Relief fund

OSAMA - Inspired by a true story, this film which centres on three generations of women, deeply affected by the advent of the Taliban's rule in their land. "Osama," is a Golden Globe award winning film. It was the first feature film to be made in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Some review comments: “a powerful film”…. “ offers valuable insights into a foreign culture that few of us have more than a cursory knowledge about” …. “great films like Osama, thoughtfully considered, give us the ability to withhold blanket judgments and come that much closer to the truth”
· Note: The film is rated M. It is not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

Picture from here

· John Tresidder is TEAR’s Pakistan coordinator. He will have been back from Pakistan from less than one week. He will give an up-to-date description of the post-flood situation in Pakistan, how TEAR is involved in the re-development of communities and how future funds will be spent.

· Pakistan Christian Fellowship has kindly offered to supply supper for the evening, so there will be plenty of tasty snacks to enjoy during the evening.
· Suggested donation: $15 (all funds go to TEARs Pakistan and North India Flood Appeal)

WHO: 

ETAG (Eastern TEAR Action Group) are organising the night.

WHERE:
Blackburn South.

Because this is being held at a private address, 

Miss Eagle is not including this in the post. 

If you are keen to come and need more information,

 please email misseaglesnetwork(at)gmail(dot)com. 

WHEN:

Saturday 20 November, 7:30pm – 10pm

WHY: 

“In the past I have witnessed many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this”

(UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon). 

In the worst flooding in 80 years, up to 2.6 million people in Pakistan have been made homeless. The waters have swept through 124 districts and have led to the widespread loss of houses, crops and livestock, as well as civil infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water and irrigation systems and schools. While the world’s media has largely moved on from the situation in Pakistan, the reality of re-building from one of the worst natural disasters in history continue for millions of people. This night will help raise much needed funds as well as provide an opportunity to hear an on-ground account of the current situation.

NOTE: 

BYO Bean bag or comfy cushion (not essential but will help with seating arrangements!)

Further reading:

Pakistan floods and the timber mafia

Pakistan  flood damage 9.7 billion dollars: World Bank, ADB

Will the Pakistan floods strike again

Pakistan's floods are not just a natural disaster

Pakistan's floods: is the worst still to come?

International Union  for the Conservation of Nature Pakistan   

Related articles

• How the floods have destroyed trust in the Pakistan ruling class (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
• Pakistan PM urges donors for patience on reforms (reuters.com)
• US Allocates USD500M from Pakistan Aid Law for Reconstruction Efforts (devex.com)
• China vows support for Pakistan's post-flood reconstruction (topinews.com)

The Gift - Stacey Kramer

Stacey Kramer's bio

It's only words, and words are all I have.....

Stephen Fry - language and fonts
~~
From our beloved BeeGees:
It's only words ...
...and words are all I have to take your heart away.

These words, found in the classic BeeGees song Words, are at the heart of this blog. I'm not influential, even in the Blogosphere, but if I have anything it is language, words...and a few photographs of doubtful quality.  But words can make all the difference can't they...when babies go from gurgles and coos to whole sentences; I love you; I'm sorry; what a great idea!

Indeed, words are all most of us - 

but, sadly, not all of us - 

have to take a heart away.

New for old - developments in photography

Kelmscott Manor: Attics  -   from here.

Kelmscott Manor –  this is where the picture is from – was the home of the wonderful William Morris.  The photo of the attic is from a story of interest to photographers everywhere.  Please go here.

Picture from here

Stephen Fry commends Hugh Bonneville to the Twitterverse

The inestimable Mr Fry has informed one and all on the Twitter that the Beautiful Bonneville is now tweetable.

Blog Action Day on WATER : Global Handwashing day - The Wiggles & Nelson Mandela

To-day, as you can see, Trad Padders, from the post below is Blog Action Day and the theme for this year is WATER. I am trying to kill two birds with one stone so I am combining the Water theme of Blog Action Day with a little soap because to-day is Global Handwashing Day.

A little water and a little soap can make a huge difference in saving lives and helping us to ward off disease.  I love the emphasis on the kids because we want them to grow up strong and resilient, don't we.

The first Global Handwashing Day was in 2008.

Our very own Wiggles wrote a special tune.

It is catchy and easy to teach to your kids.

And here is the video for 2010

Please value water.

It is our life.

Please support the human right to water and its understanding.

Article 31

In Australia, water was unbundled from land

by a COAG Agreement in 1994.

This made water a tradeable commodity -

when once it was part of the Commons -

it belonged to all of us.

This definition of water rights comes from Wiserearth:

Definition: Water rights are the legal rights that define ownership of water and water sources (surface and subsurface), the use of water and the priority of water use. Water rights allocate water to different users and can be contentious in areas where water supplies are insufficient for the demands upon the supply, and where people are denied or deprived of access to water. The right to water is increasingly considered as a basic human right that has to be reconciled with legal water rights already in existence.  Unfortunately, privatization and commodification of water often undermine this right by cutting off supply to those who cannot afford to pay.

Blog action day on Friday 15 October : we’re blogging about WATER

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

I wanted to let all bloggers know about an important online event I'm taking part in on October 15th, called Blog Action Day.

Each year bloggers from more than 100 countries come together and blog about a single important issue, and this year's topic is clean water.

The event includes thousands of blogs - including the White House blog and The Official Google Blog - and they're looking for as many blogs to participate as possible, regardless of their size and focus. 

So, Trad Padders, if you blog I hope you'll think about joining me for this event. If you want more information, check out the Blog Action Day site at http://blogactionday.change.org/. 

So to those of you  who blog - look forward to seeing your post on this coming Friday.

Duncan's wild flowers and photography at Ben Cruachan

Be still my beating heart - but Duncan's doing it again at Ben Cruachan.  Beautiful pictures of wild orchids and other wildflowers in amongst complaints of he Dry in his part of Gippsland.  Some of us have our eyes open and brains switched on more than others, don't you think, Networkers?

Spicks & Specks–the bits they left out

 

The picture above is from here.

I have been a Spicks and Specks fan since Night One.  That surely shows what excellent taste Miss Eagle has. 

To-night, the edition has been a bit different – literally, out of order.  We have been shown all the edited-out bits.  I have been helped along by a friend turning up with some Pepsi to which I added some Bundy left over from Sunday’s Rugby League Grand Final!  I have to say in what a wonderful frame of mind the Bundy & Peps and the naughty bits left me.

Adam Hills, and the anchors Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough, are, IMHO, absolutely brilliant. They have tickelled my funny bone for years now and continue to do so.  To-night they sent me into hysterics, a coughing fit, and perhaps an unredeemable apopleptic health event.  The ruling triumvirate are brilliant – and their guests….

Perhaps my favouritest guest is Denise Scott, a woman of similar. if imprecise,  vintage.  She is impossible! In the nicest possible way, mind you. Although I am in love with Hamish Blake. 

This set me to thinking.  I think Spicks has moved up a notch.  There is now room for the Grown-Up Edition (GUE) which MUST include the impromptu left out bits.  Impromptu is more fun, don’t you think?

The day no birds would sing…

…and no bees will buzzz. 

Picture from here

It seems this week that I have a focus on the birds and the bees.  Perhaps it is just spring.  I think that’s the reason.  Spring has an expectancy, a longing.  We love to see the blossoms, we love to hear the birds coming out from the rain and singing, and we do like to know that the bees will do their vital part in the continuation of this precious cycle.

I would ask you, Networkers, to pop across to Duncan’s blog where he says

As I walked through the bush I saw and heard no birds, and failed to see the flowering shrubs and plants that used to delight the eye, and as things stand I can only see the situation getting worse with further losses of biodiversity.
Birds and plants are not the only groups suffering of course, In the sixty five years I’ve been observing nature in the local area, native mammals have disappeared, frogs and reptiles have declined, and native fish and other aquatic life have taken a big hit from reduced stream flows and the introduced European carp.

Have we done this or is this just nature doing its thing?  Is this changing climate or a change in the cycle?  Let’s not ask questions.  Instead, let’s put our energies into thinking about our behaviours, what we consume from the planet – to the extent that there is not enough water, air, food for the birds, the bees, the fish and us.  And please read Duncan’s blog.

The Wisdom of Birds: their songs, their sex life...and us

When I walk up Leicester Street in Carlton from Victoria Street, before one reaches the Green Building there are terraced units. One of these has a postage stamp of a 'garden' with a lot happening in it.

Usually, I am walking up there to a meeting in the early evening. Yesterday, I walked up Leicester Street en route to a conference in Queensberry Streeet just before 10 am. The 'garden' was a hive of activity because of visitors - sparrows going to and fro. Reason? To greet other members of their species in aviaries on the front patio. Trees, birds, chatter. In spite, of the imprisonment of some, the whole scene was - to this member of a foreign species - quite joyful.

This provides my intro to this charming encounter arising from a Tweet by my desert blogging buddy, Robbo:

and here it is:

Make up your mind whether you would like

a bullfinch, a nightingale, a well-equipped male bird,

or even Professor Tim Birkhead himself.

Blogging the beautiful: Floriade and Canberra gardening.

http://canberrasgotstyle.blogspot.com/2010/10/frocktober-1st-floriade.html 

Didn't make it to Floriade this year?  Not to worry.  Just drop by MacRambling and take a peek at her beautiful photographs.  The ones on the post can be clicked on to get really drooly big pix.  Talk about blogging the beautiful.  And she has a companion blog, MacPlanting: a Canberra garden journal.

You might then like to pop over to A Growing Delight  and so hello to that keen blogger and photographer, Frances, who also has some marvellous Floriade photos.

Other blogs 'doing' Floriade:

Posie Patchwork

Canberra's got style

Tania McCartney

Current Observations

Joannaholic

Just a word: blogulosity

I love to find fabulous new words and to-day I have discovered one, courtesy of that linguistic maestro Stephen Fry. I have tried to find a definition for blogulosity by way of a Google search, but to no avail.  Here is the context in which the illustrious Mister Fry uses it:

So here is the first of a series of blogulosities in which I try and share a personal delight.

I have discovered though that this word might not have originated with Stephen Fry. There appear to be a few blog entries ahead of his usage including this one.

But I love the word.  Say it out loud.  Let it roll off your tongue. First the explosive consonant "b", the two palatal consonants "l", the sibilant "s", finished with a satisfying tip palatal "t".  It is music.  

A kindred spirit: Vegetable Vagabond

Trad Padders, isn't it a lovely feeling when we meet a kindred spirit - someone whom you want to ask home to play, have a cuppa, pull up a chair for a chat.  Thanks to my dear friend Belinda, of Belinda's Place, I have discovered Kate living at Cygnet, in Tasmania.  Her most recent post is called A Brief History of the World - and it is brilliant.

And if you pop to this post, you will find not only a post about fibre weaving but inspirational pictures of the most wonderful fences straight (or crooked) from nature.

Of course, Miss Eagle is a sucker for anyone who loves and lives community and works at it - as clearly Kate does as her blog links attest.  So please pop over and say hello and say that Miss Eagle sent you.

World Matters 2010 Writers - Disturbing the Peace @ Montsalvat -Oct 27 and 30 -31

Diamond Valley Oxfam, Montsalvat, ELTHAMbookshop

Present

The 6^th Annual

World Matters 2010 Writers - Disturbing the Peace

Oct 27  and 30 -31

Venue: The Barn, Montsalvat, Hillcrest Avenue , Eltham

Melways Ref: 22 A8

 The Great Hall, Montsalvat

Official World Matters Literary Festival Website

elthambookshop@bigpond.com

970 Main Road Eltham

9439 8700

From a Funny Picture Book to Chasing the Rainbow and Utopian Man

 

Do you remember this, Trad Padders?

So many Australians recall this book as part of their childhood.

Herself (born 1964) remembers all the funny or peculiar people.

Edward William Cole penetrated our lives and our leisure.

And so Lisa Lang wrote a biography.

Now she has taken all the material she acquired for this non-fiction work

and turned to a fiction work...

Utopian Man

Angela Meyer has reviewed the book here

and she launched the book last night at the

Melbourne City Library.

As Meyer says:

It must have been a leap to take all that research and construct a narrative out of it – to get inside Cole’s headspace, to capture the emotional dimensions of real life – of his family and friends. But [Lisa Lang] is very successful in doing so. 

Utopian ManLisa Lang
Allen & Unwin
9781742373348
2010 (Australia)

Stephen Fry - International Treasure and Twitterer beyond compare

Do you follow, like mois, Stephen Fry on Twitter?  If so, a few hours ago, you probably felt like you had your Twitter clogged with consecutive Stephen Fry tweets.  There was a reason.  He was being interviewed for the Evening Standard, which he explained before the interview began - but if you came in the middle you wouldn't have known that, perhaps, and couldn't understand exactly what was being said.  To see the questions being asked, you had to go to the interviewer's Twitter.

There is no doubt about Fry.  He confesses he loves everything new - and he must be breaking all records to chalk up firsts relating to Twitter.

1. Instrumental in overturning that scandalous libel decision in the UK which meant even Parliament could not discuss the decision.
2. Arguably the first person to make money from Twitter, by promoting his recent London event which promoted his book and which was telecast live to numerous centres across the UK - to popular demand as was his recent Melbourne appearance.
3. Possibly the first to conduct a newspaper interview on Twitter - but will await confirmation

We have heard of people being National Treasures, I hereby nominate Stephen Fry as the very first International Treasure.  Welcome at my place anytime!

For those who don't participate in the Twitterverse,
Stephen Fry is one of the most prolific Tweeters in the world.
At last count, he was being "followed" by 1,776,170 people.
So, if Stephen Fry, says something 
that's an awful lot of people to take notice.

Related Reading

The Fry Chronicles

Stephen Fry in America: Fifty States and the Man Who Set Out to See Them All

Moab Is My Washpot

Stephen Fry in America

The Liar